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When one talks about the biggest names in the pro wrestling industry, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon's name is always mentioned somewhere at the top. Vince McMahon has turned WWE into a global media giant over the past few decades. He has gone through a lot in his attempt to reach the top of the pro wrestling business.
Vince McMahon is an incredibly hard-working individual. In addition to his backstage work as a promoter, Vince has worked extensively as an on-screen character, and is dubbed by many as the greatest villain in WWE history. It goes without saying that every idea that comes up, goes through Vince McMahon. The WWE Chairman doesn't approve every idea that is pitched to him. In the following list, we will be taking a look at five promising ideas that were rejected by Vince McMahon, which could have been huge hits if approved by the boss.
#5 Vince McMahon rejects Batista's pitch for a Hell In A Cell match at WrestleMania 35
Batista wrestled his final WWE match at WrestleMania 35, against his mentor, Triple H. The match lasted almost 25 minutes, and ended up being an underwhelming affair due to its length. Initially, Batista had pitched to compete in a Hell In A Cell match, but the idea was rejected by Vince McMahon.
"Originally, we wanted a have a Hell In A Cell, but Vince, because of the pay-per-view, he didn't want to have a Hell In A Cell, and we really wanted Hell In A Cell."
"They're just great matches, they're violent. We needed bells and whistles. We're two older guys, we hadn't wrestled in a long time and we needed the drama. We've already got the history, so we just needed the violence."
According to Batista, Vince McMahon rejected the pitch because of WWE already having a pay-per-view dedicated to the Hell In A Cell match. But this didn't stop WWE from having a Hell In A Cell outing at WrestleMania 32, between The Undertaker and Shane McMahon. Batista and Triple H tore the house down at Vengeance 2005, inside Hell In A Cell.
The duo could have certainly recreated the same magic this time around as well. Plus, the Hell In A Cell could have been a perfect stage for a match as long as the one they ended up having. The duo simply beating the tar out of each other for over 20 minutes got tiresome very quickly, and the match placement hurt things as well.
#4 Vince McMahon rejects Bubba Ray Dudley's idea of bringing the Bully Ray character to WWE
After leaving Vince McMahon's company years ago, Bubba Ray Dudley's career was revived in IMPACT Wrestling, where he became Bully Ray. The character had tons of potential, and Dudley decided to pitch it to Vince McMahon, when he returned to WWE.
Bubba Ray Dudley told Vince McMahon that they could develop the Bully Ray character for around a year. Later, a babyface would make him realize that he is in the wrong, and he would then turn into a babyface himself.
I told Vince, 'Here is how we're going to work around it. Let's do the Bully Ray thing for a year and at the end of the Bully Ray thing, story or run, that one babyface makes Bully understand the error of his ways and why you shouldn't be a bully and now Bully Ray can do all the Be A Star stuff with the younger kids, saying I mended my ways. It was an in-the-ring and out-of-the-ring concept.' He goes, 'My god, I love it! It's great. But in that year, I'm going to get killed by the media because how can you have an anti-bullying program but call somebody Bully Ray?"
Vince McMahon loved the idea, if Bubba Ray Dudley's words are to be believed, but he was worried about how the media would react to the character. Dudley ended up doing nothing much of note during his run. A good idea on Vince McMahon's part would have been to let him run with the character, at least for a short period.
Instead of stretching it to a year, WWE could have concentrated it to a few months, so that Dudley would turn to the good side before the angle caused major outrage. Fans, as well as mainstream media, would have loved the idea of a bully embracing his good side, if Vince McMahon had greenlit the same.
#3 Vince McMahon rejects Jake Hager's storyline idea about him leaving for MMA, and coming back in controversial fashion
Jake Hager did fine for himself in Vince McMahon's promotion, and is a former World Champion and Money In The Bank winner. Back in early 2019, Hager was a guest on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, and opened up on an idea that he had pitched to Vince McMahon. Hager suggested an angle that would've seen him leave and do MMA, and later return to WWE to create some controversy with the promotion. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon didn't seem interested.
"I knew I was gonna do MMA. Before I left, Vince caught me in the hallway and he told me that they were wasting me. I said, 'Man, that's awesome to hear. Thank you for saying that. I'll be in your office next week with ideas. I pitched to him an idea about leaving and having to go fight MMA, and then come back, but have a little controversy between us or something. He didn't really want to do anything about it."
Vince McMahon has always loved MMA stars, if Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, and Ken Shamrock's WWE career's are any indication. A storyline such as this would possibly have elevated Hager into much more than a mid-card act. Hager went on to fight in MMA, and one look at his record will make you realize that his pitch would probably have done wonders for his career, only if Vince McMahon had approved it. Hager is currently 3-0-0 in MMA, and is also working for AEW.
#2 Vince McMahon rejects idea for a Dean Ambrose and AJ Lee pairing
Vince McMahon and Dean Ambrose rarely saw eye to eye, if his post-WWE interviews are any indication. This one's a bit interesting, as fans are aware that Dean Ambrose benefitted from coming up to the main roster as a part of The Shield. On the other hand, one look at the following angle will make you think about the tons of possibilities that could have come out of it.
Dean Ambrose and AJ Lee's characters are similar to each other in more ways than one. Back in 2012, Lee portrayed the character of a mentally unstable woman who did everything in her power to exact revenge on her co-workers for the way they treated her. A former writer had pitched an idea to Vince McMahon, which would see Ambrose align with Lee on WWE TV.
"My idea was for Bryan's plan to have AJ committed actually succeed. We'd take her off TV for a little while before bringing her back in dramatic fashion. She would return with her new boyfriend (Ambrose), whom she had met while both were patients in the institution. Ambrose and AJ would wreak havoc, becoming WWE's version of Bonnie and Clyde (or Mickey and Mallory, to use a less-dated analogy). Vince McMahon had a different vision. The WWE Chairman and CEO loved the AJ character and decided to make her the new "RAW" general manager after she called off the wedding to Bryan. AJ as GM didn't get over, and her run as an authority figure lasted just three months."
Vince McMahon decided to make AJ Lee the new RAW GM, following which she started forced CM Punk and Daniel Bryan to participate in matches, in an attempt to exact revenge on the duo. Lee's GM character didn't last long. When one thinks of the craziest personas in WWE history, Dean Ambrose and AJ Lee's names are bound to come up. Even though Ambrose coming up to the main roster with The Shield was the right decision, fans can't help but wonder what he and Lee could have done as a pair of crazy maniacs.
#1 Vince McMahon rejects Kurt Angle's idea to have him face John Cena in his retirement match at WrestleMania 35
On the road to WrestleMania 35, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle had pitched an idea to Vince McMahon, which would certainly have delighted the WWE Universe. Angle wanted John Cena to be his final opponent, but Vince McMahon wasn't too sure.
"They (WWE) had spent a lot of time building up Baron Corbin and we had to have a match… if I wanted to continue for another year I could have got John Cena, but I didn't want to go a whole other year. I knew I was done."
Kurt Angle teased an opponent for his final match for a few days, and fans were hoping for it to be John Cena. After all, it was Angle who was Cena's very first opponent in the latter's first match on WWE TV, back in 2002. The duo had quite an impressive outing, following Vince McMahon's "Ruthless Aggression" speech. Angle and Corbin had an underwhelming match, with Corbin retiring the former WWE Champion at The Grandest Stage Of Them All.
